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COPYRIGHT 2005 Metropolitan Opera Guild, Inc.
"Ho-ly! Oh, wow, that's amazing!" exclaims Matthew Polenzani, his eyes widening in astonishment. The reaction is to a favorable comparison with his idol, Fritz Wunderlich, many of whose hallmarks seem to live again in Polenzani's fresh, straightforward approach to text, pure, open vowels, long breathed phrases and sheer sweetness of timbre. Polenzani's wife and baby daughter are sitting in on our December interview in my OPERA NEWS office, and while Polenzani takes in the compliment, his wife, mezzo Rosa Maria Pascarella, laughs, "He's going to sleep well tonight."
Even as winner of the 2004 Richard Tucker Award, Polenzani seems genuinely surprised to be where he is professionally. Since serving his official apprenticeship with Lyric Opera of Chicago's young artist program, he has forged a close and mutually rewarding relationship with the Met. "I've been very lucky," he muses. "Growing up at the Met, they were very careful in the way they brought me along. Each year, they gave me something a little bit more risky, something with a little more meat, so I didn't have to step onto the stage at the Met and sing Almaviva from the start and just hope that everything was O.K. By the time Italian Girl came along in 2001, that was my fourth season at the Met, so I was comfortable there, I knew the stage management, I knew the dresser, I knew the orchestra--those people are friends."
Polenzani's Lindoro in that run of Italiana, opposite Jennifer Larmore's Isabella, was a triumph. The tenor negotiated Rossini's coloratura hurdles with unfailingly attractive tone, even while hopping on one foot, and the Met has continued to entrust him with leading assignments ever since. "When Matthew sings," notes Larmore, "the audience hears a wonderful, sensitive singer. They might even register that he's a singing actor committed one hundred percent to the music and character, but little do they know...
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